Jan 23 2012
Mitt Blows Florida Debate, Santorum Shines, Newt Expands Momentum
Good lord, Mitt really is in trouble. It is not that Newt did great job (not even close to his performance in the last SC debate), but Romney blew it. He had no spark, no intensity.
The best answers actually came from Santorum, who in my mind won the debate technically. He was spot on every question posed. The big problem with this debate, Santorum and Paul were not given equal opportunities to discuss issues. Paul suffered from his usual foreign policy blind spots, but I cannot think of a single Santorum mistake. Newt was good in a general sense but nothing stood out. Santorum had the sharpest conservative response.
Romney, came in last with his usual bland and vague responses. Romney likely fell further behind after this showing. Might have even fallen behind Santorum. I got the overall feeling pandering seems to be is modus operandi.
Newt was fairly good, but I think Santorum bested him. What will be interesting is if Santorum actually takes Romney.
NBC sucked. Their questions sucked. Their preference to Newt and Mitt sucked. NBC’s comparison of political operatives to our military on the front lines was horrific. What a horrible debate from a host sense.
On a note close to home, Mitt’s answer to the NASA/Space Coast question was moronic. NASA needs to keep leading the exploration into space until it becomes commercially viable. Mitt’s idea to build a committee of bureaucracies to explore space was moronic. The last bureaucratic approach to space was a billion dollar disaster:
The White House decided the cancel NPOESS after numerous delays and cost overruns that made the program the subject of Congressional ridicule and high-level government investigations.
NPOESS satellites would not have begin launching until 2014, at the earliest. The projected cost of the NPOESS program had more than doubled to $13.9 billion at the time of the Feb. 1 announcement to scrap the system.
NPOESS was replaced by another program that focused on getting instruments into space. What got me was how no one, except the news media, noted how America today cannot get its astronauts to our own Space Station thanks to Obama.
To miss this key fact is to miss the core problem right now in DC. Mitt lost Florida by not understanding what is happening on the Space Coast and how it is boarding up jobs because the Obama administration preferred a dumb train in CA over space exploration.
Romney failed again. Gringrich expanded his momentum from SC. But Santorum performed best. Look for Rick to pull support from Romney.
Wrong AJ.
We can’t get Americans to the Space Staion on our own thanks to President G.W. Bush.
There’s enough to blame Obama for without losing our credibility. It was Bush who decided to cancel Shuttle. Obama just agreed.
Gotta love Drudge:
So, did Gingrich support Goldwater:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/23/gingrich_i_supported_goldwater.html
Or did he support Rockefeller?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJQsLFhuyOY
Gingrich says whatever he believes his audience wants to hear. You can’t believe what he says now because it is probably the opposite of what he said to someone else 15 minutes ago. The man is absolutely pathological.
CP, so now you’re into stand up?
You must be reading Ann Coulter.
“Gingrich says whatever he believes his audience wants to hear.”
What, you think he should say what he thinks his audience ‘DOESN’T’ want to hear? really.
Give us an example of two things he said 15 minutes apart that were polar opposites.
You’re a big boy, quit crying and whining.
Are you researching the ‘truth’ about Romney as hard as you are the ‘truth’ about Gingrich? Did he ‘really’ support Reagan? Romney only became a conservative about 4 years ago, til then he ran against Reagan. put some work into checking that out…
but, for God’s sake, quit crying…..
CP
Didn’t understand what you were trying to prove with your two links. in one, the only reference to Goldwater is that he went to a Goldwater organizing conference and in the other he said he was a Rockefeller, something or other. And?…….. Do you see those as mutually exclusive?
I’ll bet if you really checked you could find lots of Romney videos where he didn’t support Reagan(was in fact, anti-Reagan) but of course you’re not interested in the Truth, only your version of it…
What I am trying to prove with my two links is that Newt Gingrich has the scruples of a toad. If you want to support a conservative, fine, support Santorum.
Newt Gingrich is not the sort of human being I want as my President. He is a liar and he can’t help it, it comes naturally to him. His politics are the opposite of Obama’s but his personality type is identical. I don’t want the man anywhere near the levers of government. That’s one reason why conservatives threw him out of the House in the first place (besides the fact that he wasn’t a team player and was out for Newt and Newt only most of the time).
I can’t believe a word the man says about anything.
I have some respect for Santorum. He’s a good man, I can understand why someone would support him. I have absolutely zero respect for Newt Gingrich and I believe anyone who supports him is either naive or ignorant. He is the personification of EXACTLY the sort of person I have been trying to get OUT of government.
Also, the difference between Rockefeller and Goldwater would be like the difference between George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan. Rockefeller was the rich, liberal, country club Republican. Goldwater was the real conservative politically.
I thought NBC did a poor job on the debate. Not only were the questions poor and boring; but, the stage set was distracting to me with the red background, red carpet, and red podium. Besides that….the color red makes you hungry so I kept wanting to get up and go to the kitchen. 🙂
Those first 15 minutes were wasted time (the back and forth between Newt and Romney). Romney got too carried away. I think it will backfire on Romney the same way Newt’s Bain attacks on Romney backfired on him a few weeks earlier. When will they learn? It’s ok to passionately voice valid critiques, vet your oppononents, etc…..but, there is a right way and a wrong way.
Santorum did well. Romney lost some points. No big moments for Newt; but, he did sound more Presidential (like the front runner). Paul made good points about the debt/deficit as usual. Gingrich worked hard in the early part of his campaign to make Cain supporters choose him as their second choice. He seems to be working on Santorum and Paul supporters in the same way now.
No big points made for the conservative side of the issues in this debate. I was hoping to see more of that.
NYT’s (Nate Silver) gives Gingrich an 81% chance to win Florida
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/fivethirtyeight/primaries/florida
and,
New Florida Polls Show Big Swing to Gingrich
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/new-florida-polls-show-big-swing-to-gingrich/
CP: boo hoo hoo, still crying…..
you didn’t listen, Newt didn’t say anything about Goldwater except that he went to a Goldwater organizer.. maybe he found out he didn’t want to support him. he didn’t say anything about the result of him going.
Romney only became a self proclaimed conservative about ’07, he never did become a conservative. He still isn’t.
love this: “He is a liar and he can’t help it, it comes naturally to him.”
CP old buddy, you are describing all politicians…. you really think Romney only says ‘the truth’? I’m not prepared to give anyone credit for being that naive…
I have no problem with Santorum… seems to be relatively honest.
never would have thought you would be so broke up over this. backing the losing horse happens often. but it’s not a crying offense.
grow up… be a big boy….
I will vote for Newt if he runs against Obama. I will not support him in the primaries and I will not vote for him in the primaries. I believe he is a guaranteed loser in the general election and it will be wasted effort to nominate him.
I also might take the South Carolina results more seriously if more than 30% of the South Carolina Republicans had voted. 70% stayed home and didn’t bother to cast a vote so I can’t even say this vote was indicative of South Carolina Republicans as a whole.
Crosspatch, more Republicans voted in this SC primary than in the 2008 primary (in fact, I think it was a record for a Repub primary). That being said…..I know how you feel. All of our candidates have major flaws in one way or another. That isn’t to say that whoever emerges couldn’t end up being a great President. The frustration for me is that there is just no way of knowing (based on thier past records). I guess it depends on if they have gotten the message or not….and can have that sense of purpose. They all talk the talk. Will any of them walk the walk? I think that is why I look for who has the boldest plans and is willing to defend them openly enough to actually risk their campaign on them. And, no matter who wins…..don’t forget that a VP selection that we can all champion could bring new enthusiasm for many of us. Stay focused on the Senate and Congressional races. There are some really great candidates running. I still think the direction we go in will be in the right direction at the end of the day. It just won’t be as fast as we would like.
CP, I sympathize. We stopped supporting candidates when all we had was The Damnable 4. I still contend much of Romney’s and the establishment GOP’s problems can trace their root cause back to NOT making bold stands after the 2010 landslide.
And I am certain Obama has NOT been picking up support from the voters in that land slide. He is doomed. Any of the 4 can beat him. I think those too worried that so called moderates will bolt Newt forget that the Tea Party movement is not moderate in its intensity, it is uniformly against Big Government solutions (left or right). Which sometimes is referred to as ‘moderate’ or ‘centrist’ because they won’t vote for hot headed, far right solutions.
the Damnable 4, I like it. Starting to hope that Mitch Daniels will reconsider; a brokered convention gets more likely every day. I’m coming to think that what Newt says about Mitt is true, but what Mitt says about Newt is true. Both are disqualified, Santorum doesn’t have the money or the organization to run a national race, and Paul is nuts. And we’re supposed to choose a champion from that sorry lot?
And Layman, to be fair to Bush – the shuttle program was well past its retirement date when he chose to replace it with Constellation. Everyone had known since the first days of the program that the shuttle system would need to be replaced by now – what Obama has done is to cancel Constellation and replace it with absolutely nothing.
Under Bush, at least America had a plan for a future space program. Under Obama, we don’t even have that. My advice to anyone interested in future space exploration is to learn to speak Chinese. Our 50 years of manned spaceflight experience has all gone down the drain.
So. Carolina set a record, and at least 150,000 more votes than 08. Previous record was in 2000. Also, you can say they weren’t Republican votes, but that holds true for the previous primaries in So. Carolina. IOW, no difference as far as not having a “closed primary.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/jan/22/south-carolina-scores-record-primary-turnout/
That said, my favorites are out of the race, and there are serious issues with the remaining ones. I am all for Newt being the attack dog, regardless of outcome, at the moment he is the only even trying to land some punches on the Left. In watching the last several debates vs audio only, nothing I see about Romney warms me to him. Yes, one can appreciate his tactic of not answering a question and making his own point instead, but too much of that makes him look like a dodger and ingenuous. Santorum makes some very good points, and he has strong social conservative issues, still he also carries Big government baggage.
Let them battle it out, hopefully they’ll focus on Obama vs each other. That’s the messaging the people are responding to.
Oh, and Mitch Daniels calling for federal intervention regarding Internet sales tax doesn’t do much for me…
We’ve gone from the Seven Dwarfs and a Newt, to the three Stooges and a Newt!
Santorum is an honorable man, yes, but his stands against gays, his creepy peering into everyone bedrooms, and the fact that like mitt he couldn’t beat liberals in his own state indicates he is going nowhere.
It is brilliant of newt to side with him and woo his supporters as Santorum has not the legs for the long haul.
I hope last nights snooze fest doesn’t turn voters off to debates completely. Brian Williams has about as much life a Terry Schiavo and less enthusiasm than a dead possum.
Www, just like Iraq has gone down the drain…and he is and his European socialist buddies are trying to send America down the drain. I refuse to let them succeed. Whomever the republican candidate needs to be supported and LED to VICTORY. No sabotaging by elites or naysayers!
We fight about Newt and Mitt, and this is what Susan Rice/Obama has to say to Israel……” that Israel must “step up efforts to counter anti-Palestinian violence and hate crimes against Palestinians” in an effort to promote an environment conducive to peace that will help peace talks in Amman.
These guys in the WH are CRAZY.
That’s what I love about Kathie. She comes from nowhere and throws water on a cat fight. She is so right! Stay focused on who the real crazy one is. 🙂
No matter who are nominee ends up being…..we can help him be the best he can be. Atleast he won’t be dong the crazy things the current Admin is doing.
….who ‘our’, not who ‘are’.
….’doing, not ‘dong’
Mea culpa tangled typing fingers.